Saturday, 29 January 2011

Friday, 28 January 2011

Colin Firth is somewhat of a favourite for my wife (something to do with some scene from a BBC drama in the mid '90s) and he's currently, and deservedly, in the running for an Oscar for the King's Speech - a fine film although not entirely accurate.

So Colin Firth expresses anti-monarchist sentiments? This immediately in my cynical mind raises suspicions that his objections to unelected bodies is probably not all encompassing. Normally these objections are in conjunction with support for other more powerful 'unelected bodies'.

And so it proves. This would be the same Colin Firth who before last year's general election gave his backing to the Lib Dems. This is the party who said; "no, yes, maybe then we'll give a different referendum on the EU - anything to get the Lisbon Treaty through". Mr Firth's response? Er nothing. He later withdrew his support from the Lib Dems. Why you may ask? For his party's support of unelected bodies? Nope. For the Lib Dem betrayal on student tuition fees instead.

Then in 2005 Mr Firth lobbied the EU for fair trade, in particular the then EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson:

Mr Firth said that he wanted to lobby for the cause as a "European citizen..."

As a European Citizen, not a British one:

However, asked by the EUobserver whether he would get involved in promoting the EU, Colin Firth said without hesitation: "No."

But it wasn't a "no, because EU unelected bodies are not my cup of tea" response, nor was there any criticism of Peter Mandelson as an unelected EU Commissioner - instead Mr Firth is happy to lobby and engage with unelected bodies if it suits his purpose.

It always seems odd that the Queen, though granted is unelected but has relatively very little power, comes under criticism yet this criticism rarely extends to other unelected bodies, such as the EU Commission, the Council of the EU, the President of the European Council, Baroness Ashton or the European Court of Human Rights which passes judgment on prisoner's right to vote against the wishes of the UK people.

If republicans such as Mr Firth really cared about "unelected bodies" perhaps they would be better off starting with the bodies which actually have real power over public policy and the lives of real people, such as judges, quangos or international bodies like the EU.

Instead they waste their time fretting over an old lady who has a love for dogs and horses, her jet-flying climate change worrying son and the Privy Council.

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Iran has been embroiled in another censorship row after a top worn by Baroness Ashton was doctored in state media because it was too revealing.

Photographs of the EU foreign minister with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili at talks in Istanbul on Friday appeared the next day in Iranian media - but showed her wearing a top with a much higher neckline than she actually had on.

Sunday, 23 January 2011

I've come a bit late to this article in the Daily Mail by BBC newsreader Peter Sissons regarding BBC bias. In truth he was never my favourite newsreader; he always seem to read the news as though he wanted to break through the television screen and punch me in the face. However his article on BBC bias, as a former employee, is a must read:

In my view, ‘bias’ is too blunt a word to describe the subtleties of the ­pervading culture. The better word is a ‘mindset’. At the core of the BBC, in its very DNA, is a way of thinking that is firmly of the Left.

By far the most popular and widely read newspapers at the BBC are The Guardian and The Independent. ­Producers refer to them routinely for the line to take on ­running stories, and for inspiration on which items to cover. In the later stages of my career, I lost count of the number of times I asked a producer for a brief on a story, only to be handed a copy of The Guardian and told ‘it’s all in there’.

And surprise surprise the BBC supports the usual suspects:

Whatever the United Nations is associated with is good — it is heresy to question any of its activities. The EU is also a good thing, but not quite as good as the UN. Soaking the rich is good, despite well-founded economic arguments that the more you tax, the less you get. And Government spending is a good thing, although most BBC ­people prefer to call it investment, in line with New Labour’s terminology.

All green and environmental groups are very good things. Al Gore is a saint. George Bush was a bad thing, and thick into the bargain. Obama was not just the Democratic Party’s candidate for the White House, he was the BBC’s. Blair was good, Brown bad, but the BBC has now lost interest in both.

Of course none of this comes as any kind of shock as Autonomous Mind points out. It's a shame, as is always the way, that the truth only outs from the inside when those concerned have left positions of responsibility.

For some time I've contemplated withdrawing from paying the license fee. Partly because I no longer watch much television, particularly because the news has become so much more vacuous, but mostly because of precisely the issues that Sissons' raises. The BBC will only listen via their wallets:

Complaints from viewers may invariably be met with the BBC’s stock response, ‘We don’t accept that, so get lost’. But complaints from ministers, though they may be rejected publicly, usually cause consternation — particularly if there is a licence fee settlement in the offing. And not just ministers, if a change of Government is thought likely.

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

EMERGENCY lending from the ECB to banks in Ireland fell in December, the first decline since January 2010, but only because the Irish Central Bank stepped up its help to banks.

The Irish Independent learnt last night that the Central Bank of Ireland is financing €51bn of an emergency loan programme by printing its own money.

Wow! This is desperate stuff, the ramifications of which are potentially enormous. It surely defeats the object of a single currency having individual member states printing money on a whim. What is now obvious is that the issue of Ireland and its bailout is far from over:

In hindsight, the attention of the market moving to Portugal or Spain was a misdirection of where the real attention needed to be, and that is Ireland still.

The bail out of Ireland, funded currently from their own retirement savings, has not been ratified by their government. The ECB has not started to poured funds from the Stabilization fund into Ireland yet, as they await ratification of the bailout.

The bailout, like a ticking time bomb has not been ratified yet, and if Fianna Fail’s 1 vote coalition collapses before the vote, all bets are off as to it ever being passed.

Ireland Central Bank was allowed, with or with out permission, to print up up new Euros without new sovereign debt issued behind them.

As Ireland have now set a precedent will Greece, Portugal and Spain do the same? The inflationary pressures of doing so will greatly increase. So how will Germany react to this, given that they are obsessed with keeping inflation low at all costs for very obvious historical reasons.

Much is being made this morning that the Government is introducing minimum pricing for alcohol, although in reality no such thing is actually being proposed. Instead of a blanket minimum price per unit, it is being linked to the duty and VAT paid:

Under plans to be unveiled by the Home Office today retailers will be banned from selling drinks for less than the value of duty and VAT owed on them.

But the announcement means the Government has stopped short of setting a blanket minimum unit price for alcohol – such as 50p per unit – which would have pushed up the average price of all products.

And there's a very good reason for this, a blanket price per unit would have been challenged in the European Courts as I blogged here and here. Don't expect the Telegraph to mention this though:

It is understood officials were concerned such a move would run in to legal difficulties. Similar proposals in Scotland were dropped.

No elaboration on what those legal difficulties are, and not for the first time has the Telegraph stayed quiet. In contrast even the BBC managed to get around to mentioning the EU in its report, albeit briefly:

Last September, the Scottish Parliament rejected plans for a minimum price per unit of alcohol of 45p, after opposition MSPs said the move would penalise responsible drinkers and could be illegal under European competition law.

Scores of top footballers launched their own companies eligible to take image rights payments after Labour Chancellor announced the 50p top rate tax...[image rights] royalties are paid into a company which is only liable for 28 per cent corporation tax rather than the 50 per cent income tax.

So by raising the higher rate of tax on the rich, tax avoidance schemes are implemented which reduces the overall tax take. Not only proof that Labour are intrinsically economically illiterate but that each generation has to learn the whole Laffer curve lesson all over again.

Thursday, 13 January 2011

A report by Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has warned that pressure on recycling more leads to goods that can be recycled such as; paper, glass and plastics being sent to landfill anyway because the quality is not good enough:

The document by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) says councils are focusing too much on the quantity of recycling rather than quality.

This is tending to produce a poor-quality stream of recyclable material.

Because of this, the lower-grade material sometimes has to be sent to landfill anyway.

To combat this the ICE believes that focusing on the quality should be as important as the quantity:

The report says the waste industry must change its culture so the focus is not only on increasing the quantity of recycled materials but on retaining the quality and value of reusable materials.

Quite how the ICE thinks the culture will change whilst we under EU obligations (Landfill Directive 99/31/EC) to send less to landfill - or else, it doesn't say.

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

Among the most prominent characteristic traits of the EU is that it believes we need protecting from ourselves by over regulation - whether we wish it or need it - and that if an EU proposal fails at the first hurdle then it'll keep coming back again and again until it succeeds.

This mindset is neatly illustrated by the latest proposals by the EU Commission to overhaul its Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. Dubbed Mifid II it's another power grab on the City of London a review of the original with the aim of regulating all those investment services it missed the first time around.

One of the most radical parts of Mifid II is a proposal to ban execution-only investments. 'Execution only' is a form of business where a customer has requested a specific investment but has chosen not to receive independent financial advice. This is aimed primarily at professional investors who have enough knowledge to make their own choices, thus cutting out unnecessary advice which in turn reduces paperwork and costs. Execution only has been an established market in the UK for nearly 30 years.People making their own choices by their own free will.

Freedom of choice (and the right to lose our own money) is an anathema to the EU project, so they propose a ban (my emphasis):

Do you consider that, in the light of the intrinsic complexity of investment services, the "execution-only" regime should be abolished.

In other words people are too stupid to make their own decisions so they need their hand held:

Deleting Article 19(6)

This implies abolition of the execution only regime. In support of this option it may be argued that retail clients – who are essentially concerned by the provision of execution only – should always expect a higher standard of service from intermediaries...

The net effect being that investors will be forced to pay for something that they neither want nor need. Unsurprisingly it's not the first time that this ban has been proposed, this from 2003:

Theresa Villiers, a British MEP, announced last week that she is taking up the cudgels in support of cheap, no-frills, execution-only stockbroking, which looks like becoming the latest victim of EU interfering bureaucracy.

Investors who want the freedom to use such a service should sit up and take notice because the EU nannies are suggesting that some of us are not "suitable" investors.

Villiers is the Rapporteur for the EU Investment Services Directive which, as currently drafted, would require stockbrokers to run suitability checks on all clients' investments - even those that have opted to trade without advice through execution-only share dealing services.

The proposal was dropped after opposition from the UK Government, but one wonders how hard this Government will fight. Not very I suspect.

What it does prove though is that the EU never ever takes no for an answer.

Monday, 10 January 2011

A new year, but the same old problems. The Euro continues to beg to be put out of its misery:

Portugal is resisting pressure to become the next eurozone nation forced into a massive financial bailout.

Perhaps worryingly for the Portuguese people, the noises out of Lisbon match those Ireland made in the days leading up to its own European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout worth £72bn.

But there is a growing belief that Portugal may also have to climb down in its opposition to a rescue package, which some commentators estimate could reach £66bn.

And guess what?

Under any deal, Britain is committed to making a contribution.

Bailing out Portugal is to save the Euro by trying to protect Spain - whose banks are massively exposed to Portuguese debt. Spain is too big to be bailed out. This is desperation to protect contagion spreading to Spain, which may or may not work. Naturally, during the processes of the euroslime protecting their own interests, the question of Portuguese democracy, and voter's wishes, will trampled on, burnt gleefully and buried six foot under:

It’s believed that Portugal is negotiating a private placement. Their objective is to take some pressure off, rather than rely solely on the market and having to defend her sovereignty in the press.

"A bailout for Portugal is inevitable – foreigners own 80% of Portuguese debt and they have decided to stop lending to Portugal," said Jonathan Tepper, chief editor at Variant Perception, a research firm in London.

I have no brothers or sisters. It's something that has never been a big deal for me; I've rubbed along quite nicely for 30 odd years without giving it more than a moment's consideration. But...boy does it become a big deal when the subject arises in social situations, as it did for me this weekend just gone.

My wife dragged me along to a belated Christmas gathering, involving lots of small talk with people we rarely see. The conversation turned to troublesome siblings, then at one point in the discussion I was asked my thoughts on the matter. "I don't know, I don't have any [brothers or sisters]". These seven words had a dramatic effect; there was a sharp collective intake of breath, and within seconds I'd magically transformed myself from an acceptable member of the human race into a zoological freak.

"Oh...oh...you're an only child? You kept that quiet" was one response. Obviously what I had said was the equivalent of a family secret so shaming that we've been desperate to keep it quiet only for the pesky drunken Uncle to blurt it all out at the most inappropriate moment.

I tried quickly to move the conversation along to another subject - unfortunately to no avail - because I knew what's coming next. The questions. Normally a mixture of the clumsy and downright rude; questions will be asked. I awaited the verbal equivalent of curiously prodding me with a stick with dread:

Is [fame] fun? Or, as student journalists always ask, what’s it like? ‘What’s it like working with Natalie Portman, what’s it like doing QI, what’s it like being famous?’ I don’t know what it is like. What is being English like? What is wearing a hat like? What’s eating Thai red curry like? I don’t believe that I can answer any question formulated that way.

Exactly how do you describe what it's like? To me being an only child is just normal. I don't know any different. I usually respond with; "what's it like having siblings?", it's the same question. I don't miss siblings as it's very difficult to miss what you've never had. I have occasionally wondered how different it may have been, out of interest, not to be an only child but it's never been more than a passing thought. I guess that those with siblings occasionally wonder the reverse.

The one that really needles though is "spoiled brat" and after many years of hearing that I have plenty of rather offensive one liner responses to that in my locker. Quite the contrary, my parents in common with other parents of only children strive to make sure that is not the case - they overcompensate. Similar to the football managers who treat their sons worse as a player, than the rest of the team.

I have two loving parents and had a happy childhood and I wouldn't change a thing. Ever. Growing up as an only child is neither better nor worse just different. The only major downfall I can see with being an only child is that you often get talked to like you're a petri dish experiment. I'm not. I'm just a bloke who happens not to have any siblings.

Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Absent Baroness Ashton leaves Britain without a voiceBaroness Ashton has failed to fully attend two thirds of European Commission meetings over the past year, leaving Britain without a voice in the most important forum for EU law making, according to research by The Daily Telegraph.

Saturday, 1 January 2011

About The Boiling Frog

A blog about the anti-democratic and pernicious European Union with particular emphasis on its impact here in the UK. Also I'll cover British politics and occasionally chuck some whimsical nonsense in as well.

EU quotes

"[There's no way Britain could accept that] the most vital economic forces of this country should be handed over to an authority that is utterly undemocratic and is responsible to nobody"(British Prime Minister Clement Attlee in response to the Schuman Plan 1950)

"We should frankly recognise this surrender of sovereignty and its purpose."(Edward Heath, Hansard, 17 November 1966)

“America would welcome it if Britain should apply for full membership in the [EEC], explicitly recognising that the Rome treaty was not merely a static document but a process leading towards political unification.”(George Ball Under-Secretary of State for JFK 1961)

"The single market was the theme of the Eighties; the single currency was the theme of the Nineties; we must now face the difficult task of moving towards a single economy, a single political unity."(Romano Prodi, 13 April 1999)

"We perform the duties of freemen; we must have the privileges of freemen ..."(Chartists 1836)

"The [Lisbon Treaty] is indeed a tidying -up exercise, it sweeps the rest of our sovereignty under the Brussels carpet."(Lord Pearson)"The Government’s guiding principle was...to swallow the lot and swallow it now."(Sir Con O’Neill, the British diplomat who led the UK’s negotiations for EEC membership under Heath)

"I look forward to the day when the Westminster Parliament is just a council chamber in Europe."(Kenneth Clarke, Conservative Chancellor in International Currency Review Vol 23 No 4 1996)"The EU is the old Soviet Union dressed in Western clothes"(President Gorbachev)

"Europe's power is easy to miss. Like an 'invisible hand', it operates through the shell of traditional political structures. The British House of Commons, British law courts, and British civil servants are still here, but they have all become agents of the European Union implementing European law. This is no accident."(Mark Leonard co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the first pan-European think tank)

“I have lived in your future ….and it doesn’t work”(Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky on the EU)

"Determined to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe"(Treaty of Rome 1957)

"This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union..."(Maastricht Treaty 1992)

"Now we've signed it - we had better read it"(Douglas Hurd, former Foreign Secretary on the Maastricht Treaty)"The supremacy of Community Law when in conflict with national law is the logical consequence of the federal concept of the Community"(H P Ipsen, 1964 - 9 years before the UK joined)

"[Norway] held a referendum [on the EU] that went the wrong way"(Douglas Hurd, former Foreign Secretary on the Maastricht Treaty)

"Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals we dare not present to them directly. All the earlier proposals will be in the new text, but will be hidden and diguised" (Valery Giscard D'Estang. on the Lisbon treaty)

"The Tories have been indulging in their usual double talk. When they go to Brussels they show the greatest enthusiasm for political union. When they speak in the House of Commons they are most anxious to aver that there is no commitment whatever to any political union."(Labour MP Hugh Gaitskell, October 1962)"It means the end of a thousand years of history."(Hugh Gaitskell - 1906-63, on a European federation; speech at Labour Party Conference, 1962)

"The Constitution is the capstone of a European Federal State."(Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian Prime Minister)'If it's a Yes we will say "on we go", and if it's a No we will say "we continue".'(Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Council)

“The substance of the Constitution is preserved. That is a fact.”(German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the Lisbon Treaty)

"I have read some of [the Lisbon Treaty] but not all of it." (Caroline Flint, former Minister for Europe)

"The primary reason why Britain entered into [EEC] negotiations was political, political in its widest sense."(Edward Heath, lecture at Harvard, 1967)

“They must go on voting until they get it right.”(Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission)

"If you go through all the structures and features of this emerging European monster you will notice that it more and more resembles the Soviet Union."(Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky)"The European Union is a state under construction."(Elmar Brok, Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs)

“I have never understood why public opinion about European ideas should be taken into account at all,”(French PM Raymond Barre)

“Let’s be clear about this. The rejection of the constitution was a mistake that will have to be corrected.”(Valéry Giscard d’Estaing)

“The 'no' votes were a demand for more Europe, not less.”(Romano Prodi, former President of the European Commission)"I don’t want an ‘in or out’ referendum because I don’t think out is in Britain’s interests.”(David Cameron, who won't hold a referendum because he thinks he'll lose)

"In Brussels one says "member state". You may imagine it means the same thing as country or state, but "member state" does not. Note that adjective. Member modifies state. Like "wooden" modifies "leg". The noun stays the same, but the essence of the thing is gone." (Mary Ellen Synon, Bruges Group Annual Conference 2013)

"No government dependent on a democratic vote could possibly agree in advance to the sacrifices which any adequate plan for European Union must involve. The people must be led slowly and unconsciously into the abandonment of their traditional economic defences, not asked…"(Peter Thorneycroft, former Tory MP)

"[Bailouts are] expressly forbidden in the treaties by the famous no-bailout clause. De facto, we have changed the treaty."(French Europe minister Pierre Lelouche)

"The European Union must take a decisive step towards a federal economic government, with common fiscal policies and a larger budget, if it is to save the euro. "(Andrew Duff Lib Dem MEP 2011)

"The transfer by the States from their domestic legal system to the Community legal system of the rights and obligations arising under the Treaty carries with it a permanent limitation of their sovereign rights... against which a subsequent act incompatible with the concept of the Community cannot prevail"(ECJ Case 6/64)

"[The EU Constitution represents] a visible move in only one direction...from intergovernmentalism to supranationalism...and this should be explained to the people of Europe"(Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus)

"The European Parliament is a caucusing body that is incredibly responsive to lobbying institutions, but it is completely unresponsive to public opinion."(Gisela Stuart, Labour MP June 2009)

“Millions of people in this country will feel as I do, that legislation passed in this way, with no consent, cannot command the assent of the country and would lack moral and constitutional validity."(Douglas Jay MP during 2nd reading of European Communities Bill 1972)

"It is an illusion to think that [EU] states can hold on to their autonomy."(Hans Tietmeyer, head of the Bundesbank 1991)"...within ten years 80% of our economic legislation, perhaps even fiscal and social as well’ would come from the EU."(Jacques Delors, President of EU Commission 1988)

"The huge cost of the Common Agricultural Policy to taxpayers and consumers far outweighs any benefit to them..."(Memo by MAFF to House of Lords European Communities Committee 1995)

"...we must now face the difficult task of moving towards a single economy, a single political unity."(Romano Prodi, President of EU Commission 1999)

"The day of the nation state is over."(Roman Herzog, German president, 1996)

"The European system of supranationality comes at the cost of democracy."(Lord Leach of Fairford)

"A European currency will lead to member nations transferring their sovereignty over financial and wage policy as well as monetary affairs."(Hans Tietmeyer, head of the Bundesbank, 1991)

"The single currency is the greatest abandonment of sovereignty since the foundation of the European Community: the decision is of an essentially political nature"(Felipe Gonzalez, a Spanish former PM, 1998)

"The [EU] Council of Ministers will have far more power over the budgets of member states than the federal government in the United States has over the budget of Texas."(Jean-Claude Trichet, current head of the European Central Bank)

"One must never forget that monetary union, which the two of us were the first to propose more than a decade ago, is ultimately a political project. It aims to give a new impulse to the historic movement toward union of the European states"(Giscard d’Estaing, who drafted the EU Constitution 1997)

"The process of monetary union goes hand in hand, must go hand in hand, with political integration and ultimately political union. EMU [economic and monetary union] is, and always was meant to be, a stepping stone on the way to a united Europe"(Wim Duisenberg, first president of the EU Central Bank)

"Once the interlude of [WWI] was over, [countries] all went back to the rules and customs of traditional parliamentary democracies. I felt out of my depth."(Jean Monnet 'Father of Europe')

"We need to build a United States of Europe with the [EU] Commission as government."(Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner 2014)

"We had imagined a political 'grand design', a new international order..."(Jean Monnet 'Father of Europe')

"I like the English style of life. I feel more at home here in London"(Tintin creator, Belgian born Herge)

"We are not forming coalitions between States, but union among people"(Jean Monnet, 'Father of Europe')

"The sovereign nations of the past can no longer solve the problems of the present: they cannot ensure their own progress or control their own future. And the Community itself is only a stage on the way to the organised world of tomorrow."(Jean Monnet, 'Father of Europe')

"That such an unnecessary and irrational project as building a European super-state was ever embarked on will seem in future years to be perhaps the greatest folly of the modern era. And that Britain . . . should ever have become part of it will appear a political error of the first magnitude."(Lady Thatcher, Statecraft)

"There is no question of Britain losing essential national sovereignty”(Ted Heath)

The British Government Knew The Consequences In 1971

...the transfer of major executive responsibilities to the bureaucratic Commission in Brussels will exacerbate popular feeling of alienation from government. To counter this feeling, strengthened local and regional democratic processes within the member states and effective Community regional economic and social policies will be essential.Parliamentary sovereignty will be affected as we have seen. But the need for Parliament to play an increasing (if perhaps more specialised) role may develop. Firstly, although a European Parliament might in the longest term become an effective, directly elected democratic check upon the bureaucracy, this will not be for a long time, and certainly not in the decade to come. In the interval, to minimise the loss of democratic control it will be important that the British Parliamentarians should play an effective role both through the British membership in the European Parliament and through the processes of the British Parliament itself.